Mastering Ummm…

There is one thing that commentators, politicians, orators, and public speakers avoid, and that is the word, “umm”. “Umm” has a connotative meaning, generally one of “I can’t think of what I’m going to say right now, so to keep the conversation going, I will say…”umm”. If you would like to know just how popular this word is, watch “Meet the Press”, or any other program that features live conversation. The problem with the word “umm”, is that the speaker is not saying anything, nor interjecting anything of any sense, but attempting to collect their thoughts.

Attend any public speaking group, and they will tell you that the word “umm” is not the only word in a person’s repertoire. It is followed by “ahh”, “like”, “err”, and “you see”. I have often wondered if a person could hold a conversation using only these words. I remember Jeff and Jer, San Diego radio personalities who would often come up with morning show antics with Laura, helper boy Randy, or Little Tommy. They had a bet that Little Tommy could not hold a 50minute conversation with anyone just saying one word. Little Tommy chose the word “Dude”. Little Tommy started calling people, and was striking out right and left. People were hanging up on him, thinking he was an idiot. Until…he found the right person to have his conversation with.

Yes, this conversation actually lasted for 5 minutes and 50 seconds before Jeff and Jer got on the line, and told the person being called that he had won a prize for staying so long on the phone with Little Tommy, just holding a conversation with one word. Now, I don’t know if this would ever work with “ummm”, “ahhh”, “like”, “err”, or “you see”, but what an interesting conversation that would be!

I wrote a poem for my wife. Not just any poem, but lyrics for a song. It has been over 15 years since I have written any kind of poetry, but I felt moved to do so. At the urging of my fellow 5Artz Creative Affiliations members, I have decided to post the first draft […]

I just received an email from Martin Cavannagh from Reedsy about book covers. It was a simple, concise letter that reminded me how important a book cover is when selling a book. As a bookseller with over 30 years of experience, I know too well, how books are sold. I cannot count the number of self-published […]

Tonight’s workshop at Barnes & Noble, Summerlin was a measure of success. By the looks of our workshop attendees, I believe I can safely assume that it was by far, a great measure of success. Yes…you are correct. I am the dumpy-looking one in the background, next to Bill Guthrie. If you don’t know Bill […]

The day is here. Our first night of a packed venue, our second Meetup at Barnes & Noble, Summerlin. We may not be on the schedule, but after tonight, I hope that our store managers will place us on the map as a regular occurrence at the store. We will be discussing the “Hero’s Journey“, […]

I checked how long it has been since I made my last post and was appalled. My last post was made on June 25th of last year. I stopped because the advice I was given was that my writing was not ready. When is your writing…”ready”? I can agonize over punctuation, grammar or content until […]

I refuse to allow another week to transpire without publishing something of significance to this blog. I am still editing past blog posts, to ensure that they reflect a degree of professionalism. In the interim, I have decided to share short original written work ranging from 500 to 1500 words that deal with my personal experiences […]

Today’s Creative Series blog post will be available tomorrow. My apologies. A number of errors were discovered in many of the initial blogs. Rather than post submissions with errors, I am correcting all punctuation, grammar and style errors, so that they reflect a more professional site.

This part of our Creative Series will cover characters. Characters are a very important part of every good story. Characters are the primary colors of your plot. Without characters, a story can become a lifeless, dull, carcass of a plot which loses the reader’s interest. It is the writer’s job to create interesting characters to […]

Today is the day that we meet our muse. What I will be doing from this point to the end of the series, is creating a storyline and finished product online. For the next few parts in our series, we will literally create a story from this blog, using all of the tools that we have covered.